Pietro Rossi (actor)

Pietro Rossi (1470-?) was an Italian actor.

Biography
First an actor in Ercole d'Este's theatre in Ferrara, in 1494, Pietro left the company for Rome after he was caught in bed with an actress playing one of the Three Graces. Unlike the theatre in other countries, Italian troops included women. The argument was that if men in the audience could be exposed to females with all their devilish charms, they would be prepared to resist them in person.

Once in Rome, Pietro joined Cardinal Raffaele Riario's theatre, performing the Ancient Roman plays of Seneca, Plautus and Terence, although Classicism didn't seem to have cooled him down. He appeared quite frequently on the registers of the Rosa in Fiore brothel in Rome. In 1500, he also started an affair with Lady Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and wife of Cesare Borgia, the most powerful man in all of Italia. He also held the key to the Castel Sant'Angelo, which was the Pope's fortress, while Cesare and the Pope were gone in 1503. Lucrezia put him in danger by telling Cesare that she had an affair with Pietro in order to make Cesare jealous, and Cesare sent Micheletto Corella to kill Rossi.

In order to get the key, Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze needed to take it from Rossi, but he wound up attempting to save him. Rossi was supposed to play Jesus Christ in the play "Pieta" in the Colosseum, and Micheletto was Pontius Pilate, and he was to order gunmen to shoot him. However, Ezio and his apprentices dressed in the Roman costumes and headed onto the stage and stabbed Micheletto, who revealed that Rossi's wine was poisoned, and Ezio let him go.

Ezio carried a wounded Pietro to a doctor outside of the Colosseum, and treated him there. When Ezio told Pietro that Cesare knew of him and Lucrezia, Pietro gave him the key, and Ezio left. Rossi contined his acting career, away from Rome.